American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 22
Top: Most nightinterior scenes
were lit solely with
practical and offcamera flames.
Bottom: A lantern
lights Thomasin's
face while a pair
of M90s on an 80'
lift simulate
moonlight.
more of the characteristics of the old lenses
we were using."
The filmmakers' research brought
them to Plimoth Plantation, a Massachusetts
living-history museum that exhibits a 17thcentury Plymouth Colony settlement. It was
there that they studied family inventories
and Plimoth's re-created structures, which
provided the basis for the family farmhouse
that production designer Craig Lathrop
would ultimately build with period-accurate
hand-riven oak clapboards and reedthatched roofs.
Though their initial preference was to
shoot in New England, the production opted
for Canada to take advantage of financing
opportunities, including the Northern
Ontario Heritage Fund. Dense forests with
white pine and hemlock trees were essential,
and after months of scouting, a suitable
location was found outside the abandoned
lumber town of Kiosk, 250 miles north of
Toronto.
The 26-day shoot got underway in
22
March 2016
late spring 2014, which was problematic
given the story's autumn setting, leaving cast
and crew to pick new buds out of the trees.
The production lodged in the town of
Mattawa and traveled 45 minutes each day
to the set, where there was no cell coverage
- making communication a challenge.
The filmmakers aimed for a desaturated look, which was realized with the help
of Lathrop's sets, Linda Muir's costumes, and
a concerted effort to shoot at dawn, dusk or
whenever it was overcast. "We wanted it
gray and dead," Eggers says. "We were
trying to have everything feel grim and
oppressive."
When conditions weren't right, the
production moved to interior scenes.
"Weather was everything," Blaschke notes.
"There are a lot of day exteriors, and it works
only if it's gloomy. We didn't have perfect
luck, but the producers were on our side in
terms of last-minute cover-set rescheduling
to get the right feeling."
Although the filmmakers had hoped
American Cinematographer
to shoot with 500 ASA film stock, in the end it
was decided that the budget necessitated digital shooting, and so they opted for an Arri
Alexa Plus 4:3 camera. "Alexa doesn't look like
film, but it's pleasing in other ways," Blaschke
says. "It's glassy and smooth. It's the digital
camera that's best for how I like to work and
how I like things to look."
The production sometimes necessitated
running the camera for long stretches until the
filmmakers got what they wanted, namely in
challenging scenes involving unpredictable
goats and young children. "It was a better
choice for getting the movie done," the director offers.
A Convergent Design Gemini 4:4:4
recorder and 512GB SSDs captured 24-fps
ArriRaw footage, while select 28-32-fps shots
were captured internally in ProRes 2K to Sony
64GB SxS Pro Memory Cards. Log C ProRes
was recorded for backup of all footage.
Blaschke tested various vintage lenses
at Panavision Hollywood and decided on Series
II Cooke Speed Panchros. "The backgrounds,
when thrown out of focus, have a globular
look," he explains. "They have a swirling effect
that - in combination with vignetting -
draws your eye to the center, which works well
for symmetrical compositions. It has a transcendent, witchy feel to it. It's like looking
through a porthole or crystal ball."
The crew also used a vintage custommade Panavision 20-100mm zoom. Its motor
eventually gave out, leaving 1st AC Kevin
Michael LeBlanc to simultaneously pull focus
and manually zoom.
Blaschke found T2.81⁄3 to be the
perfect stop. The Cooke lenses were sufficiently softening, so NDs and the occasional
grad served as the only filtration. For a few
specific flame-lit shots, he would shoot wideropen with a rare Bausch & Lomb Super Baltar
35mm (T2.3) or a "de-tuned" Panavision
Super Speed MKII 50mm (T1.4).
The cinematographer estimates that 85
percent of the movie was shot on a 32mm
Speed Panchro (T2.3). "You feel 'right there'
with the characters, and the environment is
ever-present without getting into distracting Zaxis distortion," he explains.
For extreme wide shots, Blaschke used
a 25mm, and for more portrait-like compositions and inserts, he employed a 40mm. The
Series II 50mm was used for a couple of POV
shots, such as when Caleb guiltily glances at
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - March 2016
Table of Contents
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - Intro
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 1
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 2
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - Table of Contents
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 4
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 5
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 6
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 7
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 8
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 9
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 10
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 11
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 12
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 13
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 14
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 15
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 16
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 17
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 18
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 19
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 20
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 21
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 22
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 23
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 24
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 25
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 26
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 27
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 28
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 29
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 30
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 31
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 32
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 33
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 34
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 35
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 36
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 37
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 38
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 39
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 40
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 41
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 42
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 43
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 44
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 45
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 46
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 47
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 48
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 49
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 50
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 51
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 52
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 53
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 54
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 55
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 56
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 57
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 58
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 59
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 60
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 61
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 62
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 63
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 64
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 65
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 66
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 67
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 68
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 69
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 70
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 71
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 72
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 73
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 74
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 75
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 76
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 77
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 78
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 79
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 80
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 81
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 82
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American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 84
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 85
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 86
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 87
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - 88
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - March 2016 - Cover4
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